These are the words of scripture found in Luke’s gospel chapter 9 where it is written “One day, as Jesus was alone praying, he came over to his disciples and asked them, “Who do people say I am?” This presents two very important leadership practices. First the idea of “being alone”, finding, or rather making time to reflect and consider broader issues and ideas. We push ourselves to meet the demands of our business, family and community responsibilities with little to no time for self reflection...

I often struggled with the issue of employee “accountability”, whether it was the completion of business plans, process documentation or the application of processes and principles to drive productivity gains. While much is written around the importance of accountability and principles to support its application, it’s seems to be interpreted most often as something that you impose or that is imposed upon you by another. My first response was often a desire to “change” them and was expressed in statements...

Posted 05-28-2015 at 09:50 PM byEpiphany (Epiphany Professional Development Blog)

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Perhaps you’re familiar with the story of Saul and his pursuit of Peter in the book of Acts. On the road to Damascus Saul encounters Christ, but it’s his donkey that senses His presence first and stops in the road. Saul, committed to his agenda and his perceived need to reach Damascus, fails to see what is impeding his progress, Christ standing in front of the donkey. In frustration, Saul repeatedly beats his donkey, yet he remains unmoved given the barrier. How often has your reaction to a situation...

Posted 05-11-2015 at 03:38 PM byEpiphany (Epiphany Professional Development Blog)

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Poor or insufficient performance feedback is the number one cause of deficient performance according to a study conducted by the Conference Board. It’s like a poor diet, there don’t seem to be any immediate consequences, then seemingly before you know it, lethargy, heartburn and high blood pressure are the result. It’s not intentional, but that’s kind of the point.

The environment we create as leaders is, in large part, a reflection of the things we value and that motivate us. Often...

Posted 04-08-2015 at 10:18 PM byEpiphany (Epiphany Professional Development Blog)

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Passion – without it leadership and success can be elusive if not impossible, yet an excess of it can limit leadership effectiveness and possibly your success. Like so many traits, passion has its assets and liabilities that require balance. Passion enables leaders to enlist others around a vision, it provides great clarity and direction, enables one to persuade and persevere, it underpins a commitment to the accomplishment of vision. That same passion; however, can isolate leaders and potentially...